Horse Sense: To see more details on how you can maximize your street turbocharger kit or keep track of the continued development of this feature car, Paul has invited all of our readers to his home page at www.cardomain.com/ride/340965. Check it out.

Longtime readers of this magazine will remember a bright-red turbocharged street sweeper owned by Scott Bailey featured in the July '02 issue ("Road Raging," p. 164). Scott took his stock-looking GT into supercar status by basing his mods around an affordable turbocharger system. He has since turned the GT into a 9.60 car that's a useful tool for all sorts of encounters. When we shot it, Scott's little brother Paul came along to show us his GT. The Mustang was clean, had a nice selection of bolt-ons, and was on its way to becoming special. When he asked us if we could shoot the car that day for a feature, we politely asked him to get hold of us when he was finished with the mods. True to our word, once Paul was somewhat satisfied with the car's performance, he contacted us and we set up a photo shoot.

Family hot rods didn't begin with Scott, though. Their father has a side business, Blue Knight Enterprises, which specializes in building and restoring old Willys; the two brothers were always helping with various projects.

Paul's first car was a '68 Dodge Dart with a 318 small-block stuffed into it. It was a crawler, but it got him into the game. Meanwhile, Scott grew up with a '67 Cougar that ran low-13s. Then he got the GT, which came equipped with a Cartech turbo system. Paul was still in high school at the time, but seeing his brother's immediate success with a turbocharged GT solidified what he wanted in his future project car.

By 1998, Paul was in the financial position to get a Mustang. After his dad and Scott helped him look at a few cars, he bought the Reef Blue beauty you see here. It was rather expensive at $8,900, but it was in killer shape. All stock, it ran a best of 15.3 seconds at 93 mph in the quarter. Practicing his driving techniques and getting to know the car got the best as-delivered numbers down to 14.5 seconds at 95 mph. That's a good lesson for those readers just starting out-get to know your car, learn the sport of drag racing, and practice as much as you can before you dump all sorts of money on speed parts.

"My car became the leftover stepchild for my brother's upgrades," Paul says. "As more and more of his car parts became available, my car got faster. I received a full exhaust, a new clutch, a quadrant, and a flywheel from the beginning. In 2002, the car had Edelbrock heads-the same ones that are still on the car-an Edelbrock Performer intake, a 75mm throttle body, a C&L 73mm mass air, and a stock cam. The car made 299 hp and 324 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels. It ran 12.40s at 108 mph on ET Streets. It was enjoyable, and it was a solid 12-second car. But at that point, I was ready to take it to the next step.

"I knew I didn't want a blower or nitrous. Every car I would see at Fun Ford and NMRA events had that, and I wanted something different. My brother's car was still somewhat of a rarity. Turbos were becoming widespread, and that was what I wanted to do. I did my research and decided to go with the Pro Turbo Kits. I gave Pro Turbo a call, and six months later I had my kit in hand."

What followed could best be described as a couple of years of growing pains, as Paul had to update several systems on the car to make it survive the power potential of a serious turbocharger system. An incorrectly installed FMU hydro-locked the engine and kept the car down for almost a year. Back together for the '03 season, Paul worked his way through transmission issues with a best of 13.1 seconds at 120 mph on only 7 psi. Paul also realized that a stock short-block and big boost don't mix well, so he submitted an order for a built short-block from Fox Lake. Ron Robart and his Fox Lake team prescribed a low-compression 306 with forged internals, and by the '04 season Paul was back in action. That season brought a lot of frustration. The transmission continued to hinder maximum performance, and the car's true potential wasn't getting realized no matter how hard Paul worked. The season ended with a disappointing 12.84 e.t. at 117 mph in Fun Ford Norwalk True Street competition. A week later, the turbo sucked a clamp through it, bombing the head unit, thus ending the season for the GT.

With the '05 season, Paul had a renewed interest in the car-he considered dumping the whole thing. He swapped in a rebuilt Tremec 3550 transmission with a SPEC Stage 3 clutch. After filling the tank with 110 octane and seeing as much as 20 psi, the car ran an 11.63 e.t. at 122 mph. Two more 11.60s popped up that day, but a 25-psi boost spike kicked the head gaskets, sending Paul and his team back to the garage.

Paul replaced the head gaskets, fine-tuned the combination, and finally got a handle on the boost curve of the car. The next trip out resulted in a 10.84 e.t. at 121 mph. The head gaskets blew at only 15 psi. Diagnosing the problem as inadequate fuel delivery, Paul swapped them toward the end of the season for a return trip to the track. With only 10 psi, the turbocharged GT banged off an 11.22 e.t. at 125 mph without breaking a single part. MD Motorsports tuned the car, and Paul finished the season with a string of 11.0s at more than 126 mph on ET Streets and a best of 12.00 e.t. at 127.3 mph on street tires.

During the winter of 2005, Paul pieced together an Aeromotive fuel system, added a PLX M-300 wideband air/fuel meter, and began looking into running nitrous with the combination. That got the car into the 11.80s at 125 mph on street tires with the exact same tune-up. The next pass netted the GT an exploded transmission, splitting the input shaft on the Second-Third shift. At this point, the car was making 485 rwhp and 527 lb-ft of torque at only 9 psi on 93-octane pump fuel. Paul installed a methanol kit from DevilsOwn Injection, but then he realized he was running an undersized wastegate spring. He swapped the 0.25 bar for a 0.7 bar, and the car became a whole new animal. Keeping the boost in the 10-15 psi range, Paul managed a best of 11.13 e.t. at more than 127 mph with only a 1.70 second 60-foot time. The mostly stock 306 finally let go, giving its life so Paul could run low-11s on pump gas. He's back to the drawing board with the GT for 2007.

"I popped the old motor and broke the Tremec 3550 twice in 2006; things have been better," Paul says. "I got [the car] back together in November 2006. It took about eight weeks to get back together this time. I have only about $240 in getting it running again, including motor, gaskets, and so on. It now has a stock '87 F-150 5.0 short-block, E7 heads, and a stock Mustang cam. I just had Precision Autosports retune it yesterday. On 7.3 psi, the car made 396 rwhp and 486 rwtq-I was shocked. This is my 'tide me over' engine. Hopefully I'll be able to drive it next year with minimal issues. It should be good for 11s on slicks.

"My future goals involve a 351-based motor. I would like a 396/408 combo with AFR 225 heads, a Trick Flow intake, and Scott's T76 that's currently on his car. I want to keep it a five-speed, and it's my hope that the current TKO-600 would live behind that combo. I don't want anything crazy, just an easy 600 rwhp on pump gas and mid-10s on slicks. I really want to thank all of my family and friends for their help on getting this car to where it is today. If not for their support, I would never have fulfilled my dream of getting the car in 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords magazine"

With Scott already well on his way to a low-9-second car, we bet Paul will have a nice low-10-second package put together in no time.